Trouble Anyway announces the arrival of an artist who fits neatly into no category but thrives in the inbetween. [Jan 2019, p.13]

The Black Album, dubs and all, could use some more of Perry's surrealist medicine. But it's hard to deny that ut's good to hear him in such healthy form. [Jan 2019, p.23]

Beguiling mix of gothic Southern soul and outlaw country. [Dec 2018, p.27]

His blazing guitar leads contrast with the sombre tone of the 20-track We're Your Friends, Man, the fragile-voiced Saloman haunted by third-age problems. [Jan 2019, p.19]

Wonderfully dark fourth album. [Jan 2019, p.22]

The greatest since he killed off Ziggy? Arguably, but certainly an autumnal peak.

Sinking Into A Miracle is absolutely beautiful--otherworldly, often, and quietly ecstatic, in its own, strangely pop way. [Jan 2019, p.17]

The likes of John Lee Hooker's "Dimples" and Sam Cooke's "Laughin' and Clownin'" are intimate, effortless-sounding exercises in sublime jazz phrasing, his voice at 73 as supple as ever. [Jan 2019, p.22]

Full of eerie trembles and trills, Camila De Laborde's voice is similarly ethereal, if sometimes numbed, and she and Daniel Hermann combine to create glistening, immersive soundscapes. [Jan 2019, p.19]

He's made one of his most uncompromisingly lovely albums, a tender notebook of pointillist electronics, deep waves of drone and ever ascending, yet melancholy, melody. [Dec 2018, p.23]

Melnyk conjures a world that is both sentimental and abstract--a safe space in which to lose yourself. [Jan 2019, p.22]

There's a welcome freshness to Sequence; it may be smartly, deftly constructed, but it feels free and open. [Jan 2019, p.23]

For all its old-time vibes, a typically inspired record from Ferry. [Jan 2019, p.21]

There's no central narrative to this anthology of psych-tinged, countrified canyon-rock. [Dec 2018, p.25]

Despite the addition of some burnished guitar licks, the results are as awful as you might expect and his one original composition, "For Love On Christmas Day," isn't much better. [Jan 2019, p.19]

Crowell conjures a collection both wryly whimsical and devastating sincere. [Jan 2019, p.19]

There are lots of lightly retro arrangements and nods to 1960s bubblegum pop. [Jan 2019, p.22]

A lovely record. [Jan 2018, p.22]

The end result creates an engulfing sonic swirl, recalling the enveloping work of Cluster and Tangerine Dream. [Dec 2018, p.24]

On Reflection can't make any grand claims to originality, but charms with its clarity and light. [Jan 2019, p.25]

The lowering, incantatory "Circles," suggesting Peggy Lee fronting a minimalist Warpaint, and the doomy rebetika of "Loving Loving" stand out, but there's much to admire. [Dec 2018, p.33]

Amid the superior pieces like "No Expectations" and more minor moments of parody and innuendo, jammed endings on songs like "Salt Of The Earth" embrace a real joy in improvisational ensemble playing. ... "Sympathy" also sits apart from the rest of the songs as a separate 12in, much as it towers above the rest of the songs on the album. [Jan 2019, p.40]

It's a tender manifesto of self-doubt, a shout fading into a murmur. [Jan 2018, p.16]

"Wolves Change Rivers" betrays his love for Erik Satie, but "For My Mother" [is] reassuring affection is unquestionably his own. [Jan 2019, p.21]

Gibson's follow-up to 2016's Empire Builder finds her tinkering with the complexion of her sound, bringing piano and strings to the surface, mostly at the expense of guitar. It turns out to be a clever fit for the songs. [Nov 2018, p.29]

Like Go-Kart Mozart or Billy Childish, Argos fashions lyrical witticisms from the commonplace. [Jan 2019, p.17]

Their most accessible and melodic yet. [Dec 2018, p.25]

A sumptuous set of gloriously gloomy ballads that emphasise Moss's expressiveness as a vocalist. [Dec 2018, p.28]

Shabason again blurs genre boundaries with impeccable judgement and such understatedly emotional approach that the tag "ambient jazz" sounds like a slight. [Jan 2019, p.25]

He overthinks the rambling "JTR" and overstuffs the messy collage "Monkey Man."[Dec 2018, p.33]

The outer skein of mystical mystery shelters a clutch of slyly insistent melodies. [Jan 2019, p.21]

It's a warmly pristine, groovily poignant set, with vocals pitched for gender neutrality and an ear for a great hook. [Jan 2019, p.23]

Simultaneously her most formally experimental and melodically palatable yet. [Jan 2019, p.25]

Every track hits its target. [Jan 2019, p.27]

The set's ordering is exemplary, especially given its size, but diving in at random reaps the richest rewards, throwing up unexpected complements and contrasts. ... It's a trip for devotees and newcomers alike. [Jan 2019, p.41]

And Justice For All remains their most pivotal and arguably their most divisive album. ... Lots of demos, rough mixes, studio jams and live numbers that show how powerful the new lineup sounded away from the studio. [Jan 2019, p.37]

This stripped-down set from the Palace/Bonnie songbook is a reminder of what a great singer Oldham has become. [Jan 2019, p.23]

Sparklingly produced, clean-cut and sweetly tuneful songs. [Jan 2019, p.23]

An intimate, unfiltered snapshot of rough-hewn excellence. [Jan 2018, p.21]

[B.E.D.'s] conversational neo-electroclash ditties are slight but hugely charming. [Jan 2019, p.20]

["Cheyenne" is] keenly observed and beautifully realised, which goes for most everything on Interstate Gospel. [Jan 2019, p.20]

A series of esoteric, danceable, frequently amusing stories about sleeping in gardens, body waxing and Swansea. [Jan 2019, p.19]

Once a songwriter with a deft facility for catchy hooks, his melodies droop under the lethargic tempos, turning his self-deprecation into something like self-absorption. [Jan 2019, p.22]

On their fourth album, all pretense at rootsy authenticity is gone--this is machine-tooled stadium pop, with producer Paul Epworth in the Brian Eno role. [Jan 2019, p.22]

There's no flash and no trash, just reflective, ripe, minor-key ruminations, plenty of melodically burnished guitar playing and Knopfler's voice, which has crusted nicely with age to take on a warm, rich burr. Classy. [Dec 2018, p.27]

There's a fine line between the sincerely wistful and contemplative and the nostalgic and morose, but Merrie Land understands where the borders are and stays within them. [Jan 2019, p.18]

Ghost Forests is a sensual record where the spaces in between the sounds assume a corporeality all their own. [Dec 2018, p.26]

Hendrix's genius really was for compact, tightly honed pop-rock, where his playing could court restraint, embracing a kind of flinty, tensile groove. The psychedelic drift of "Rainy Day, Dream Away" is the highlight; the extra live and demo material will keep fans happy, but adds little of note tot he story. [Dec 2018, p.42]

A fascinating accompaniment to Hollander's book of the same name. ... Superb collection. [Dec 2018, p.46]

The smoother strains of the folk-tinged "Within Each Day" and "If You Are Leaving" make a bigger impression, confidently stepping out from his elder sibling's shadow. [Dec 2018, p.41]

Martin's new stereo mix succeeds, principally through lightness of touch. ... Over 107 tracks, we learn that the making of The White Album was not quite the frigid stand-off that we might have been led to believe. But nor does this glimpse behind the curtain diminish The White Album's mystique. [Dec 2018, p.34]

Goldblum knows his limitations and never sounds out of his depth. ... Good stuff. [Dec 2018, p.25]

Their best, boldest, most unashamedly poptastic album yet. [Dec 2018, p.28]

No frontiers are breached, but Mascis's cracked vocals and melancholic melodic turns only get more affecting with age. [Dec 2018, p.28]

The airy, uncomplicated sound recalls a rural expanse, with St Louis’s hushed confidence guiding the listener through fields and along banks. [Nov 2018, p.33]

The most heart-wrenching selection are a ravaged take on Nirvana's "Stay Away" in which Bradley intuitively taps into Kurt Cobain's roiling anguish, a tonsil-shredding full-band rendition of "Victim Of Love" and the instrumental "Black Velvet," which Brenneck had earmarked for a Bradley vocal he was too weak to sing. [Dec 2018, p.23]

As Gerrard's voice recedes into the silence, we're left with the sense that the hungers for mystery and transcendence this music explores could be as fundamental to us as it was to those who partied so hard so long ago. [Dec 2018, p.32]

It's a delightfully messy set of junkyard bubblegum garage, with Spencer squeezing out a series of choppy grooves while howling largely meaningless slogans against a backdrop of feedback and fuzz. [Dec 2018, p.33]

Too often the music from both sessions provides little more than gauzy atmosphere, lacking the drive and purpose of previous albums. But Cash is a deft singer and evocative songwriter. [Nov 2018, p.25]

A highly evolved exercise in absorption and restraint. [Dec 2018, p.28]

He's a poet of the everyday, finding outsized emotions within these life-sized tableaux. [Dec 2018, p.28]

Yawn is chilly and languid, the 35-year-old's penchant for sudden bursts if guitar noise giving depth and colour tot the Cure-ish gloom around "Recover," "John" and "No One's Trying To Kill You." [Dec 2018, p.30]

No Tourists positively benefits from its echoes of past glories. [Dec 2018, p.30]

An extraordinarily, beautiful, haunting piece of music. [Dec 2018, p.25]

The snarky will hear a reheated Mike Flowers Pops; the wise, a labour of genuine love. Turn on, tune in. [Nov 2018, p.24]

Considered, compassionate and intricate, conceived of equal parts magic and dread, Laws Of Motion works a slow but deep enchantment. [Dec 2018, p.30]

What Negative Capability has for you at its best is just this kind of upending of expectations. [Dec 2018, p.16]

Leonard has whipped another rabbit out of his hat. The surprise is that it's his most conventional release yet. [Dec 2018, p.27]

There's respect but nothing approaching the sort of suffocating reverence that kills so many covers. [Dec 2018, p.22]

Thom Yorke's Suspiria might not be to everyone's taste--but it feel enough, for now. [Dec 2018, p.20]

The result is akin to a John Ford film with an indie soundtrack. [Nov 2018, p.37]

There are jarring moments but Holter's quest to channel the clatter of the universe produces transcendent beauty too. [Nov 2018, p.24]

A beautifully languid collaboration with three members of his Lighthouse band. [Dec 2018, p.23]

An album that can initially feel scatty but is held together by its creator's passion and poise. [Dec 2018, p.28]

It's an austere, difficult listen, but it's frequently thrilling. [Dec 2018, p.33]

Proves that even when their studio work was in the doldrums, REM were never less than a compelling live band. [Dec 2018, p.47]

Allways is as mercurial as it is highly listenable. [Nov 2018, p.26]

There's a fair amount of Fugazi worship on display with track like the churning punk of "Ruptured Line," but the album really flies when the metal influences come to the fore. [Nov 2018, p.]

Wasteland retains a wilful catchiness. [Dec 2018, p.33]

The fuzz-rock of "Just A Fool" is transformed into a clawhammer-guitar folk ballad; the punky glam of "You Get To Rome" and the space rock of "Yes To Everything" both become ragtime ditties; the heads-down rocker "All In Your Head" and the stadium-sized "No Secrets" become pretty ballads, with some lovely Joni Mitchell-ish chord changes. [Dec 2018, p.27]

The gravity of his subject matter finds a contrast in Swift's playful musical settings. [Dec 2018, p.33]

The eclectically banging result is an invigorating circuit-workout through righteous rage, swinging from livid EDM beats with Steve Aoki and Rise Against's Tim McIlrath, to furious rap with Big Boi, Killer Mike and Bassnectar. [Nov 2018, p.28]

His homespun take on soft rock and '80s Continental pop balances languid dreaminess with a subtle virtuosity. [Dec 2018, p.27]

This Swedish quartet's second album often recalls a mid-90s Matador Records release. [Dec 2018, p.25]

They've proved here that they're more than capable of escaping from, or expanding on, that familiar sound. [Dec 2018, p.24]

Assured, yes, but there's very little rebellion here. [Dec 2018, p.23]

From dive-bar romps to plaintive reflection, this is his strongest collection for some time. [Nov 2018, p.30]

Broken Politics is a thoughtful, reflective record that twines the political and the person. [Nov 2018, p.26]

The sound of Ono gravely warbling "Imagine" at the close of Warzone may invite more ridicule from longtime haters. But believers in her musical vision will deem it very much of a piece with the boldness that marks these new renditions of many of her most furious songs. [Nov 2018, p.34]

The shuffling piano and accented horns coalesce in the simple wishes of "Dreamin'," while "Ancient Past" finds Parker, toying with time and memory, savouring every moment. [Nov 2018, p.34]

The LPs collected here lack the punch of his previous efforts. But they do have their charms. ... Most revealing are two live LPs, from '83 and '87, that show an artist reconsidering his old hits--and his old selves--for new fans. [Nov 2018, p.45]

It is a cornucopia of delights for audiophiles and there are more than enough quirks and insights to make it invaluable to even the most causal Lennon fan. [Nov 2018, p.46]

This second album tips a stetson to the neglected Western heritage of his native country, from the stark beauty of "Saskatchewan In 1881" to the deliciously luminous cover of Wilf Carter's "Calgary Round-Up." [Nov 2018, p.37]

Genres glom together in unlikely combinations, split and mutate via myriad effects, yet this set is pop to its core, nodding to everyone from Bowie, Byrne and Carl Craig to Arthur Russel and Wire on its way to off-centre intrigue. [Nov 2018, p.27]

However eccentric and laidback his expression, it's as masterfully distinctive as that of any auteur. [Nov 2018, p.35]

The synth reveries outstay their welcome, but the sense is of a great talent whose early solo work vented a lifetime's pain and outrage now experimenting and recalibrating. [Nov 2018, p.30]

At times ethereal and romantic, at others eerie and queasy, it's completely different, but equally worthy, addition to this autheur's overlooked and original canon. [Nov 2018, p.18]

This equally fine sophomore effort sees Burch take a few steps into the present. [Nov 2018, p.25]